ISLAMABAD: The country’s two major parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — have blasted the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government for a record increase in the country’s public debt and liabilities in just 15 months.

Commenting on the debt policy statement of the Ministry of Finance laid before the parliament, PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb in a statement on Saturday said the PTI government “should at least hang its head in shame, if not more, over their confession of crushing Pakistan under Rs11,610 billion loan in 15 months.”

Similarly, PPP information secretary Dr Nafisa Shah said Prime Minister Imran Khan had claimed that the year 2020 would be one of recoveries, but the economy had only suffered according to the State Bank governor.

The government on Friday had conceded major violations of the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act for massively exceeding debt acquisition limits, disclosing that there had been around 40 per cent increase in Pakistan’s public debt and liabilities in 15 months.

PML-N terms Imran’s Naya Pakistan ‘extremely indebted’, ‘alarmingly impoverished’; PPP says PTI is ruining institutions

In its debt policy statement laid before the parliament, the finance ministry noted that total debt and liabilities that stood at Rs29.879 trillion at the end of the fiscal year 2018 crossed Rs41.489tr at the end of September 2019, showing an increase of Rs11.6tr or 39pc. At the end of the fiscal year 2019, the total debt and liabilities were reported to have increased by about 35pc or Rs10.344tr to touch Rs40.223tr.

Ms Aurangzeb alleged that Mr Khan kept the nation occupied with “his chicken, egg, calf revolution”, while helping his “cronies steal national wealth and stack up their treasures”. She said: “Imran (Khan) has burdened the people of Pakistan beyond imagination and set the nation up for an era of financial misery and starvation.”

Over its 71 years of existence, she said, Pakistan had taken Rs29,500 billion loan in total. But Imran-led government stacked up more than one-third of the total money borrowed since the country came into being, she added.

“The average annual loan in Pakistan’s history comes to about Rs415 billion while under Imran’s government it is now Rs11,610bn which is a 2,216 per cent increase,” she said, adding that “this is the reality of Imran’s Naya Pakistan, which is extremely indebted, insanely expensive, and alarmingly impoverished”.

Ms Aurngzeb, who had served as information minister in the previous PML-N government, said her party did not take this much loan over its entire five-year term and the money that had been borrowed was used in building 17,000 kilometres of motorways, producing 12,000 megawatts of electricity, projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, setting up of the LNG terminal, development of Gwadar Port and industrial zones and a number of metro mass transport services.

However, she said, the PTI had done nothing. In fact, she said, the government snatched the last piece of meal from people with the rising inflation, wheat and sugar crises. With a negative growth, she said, the country was heading for an irreversible disaster.

Ms Aurangzeb said the PML-N left a deficit of 6.2 per cent whereas under the present regime, last year’s deficit was 8.9pc and this year it was expected to range between 9.5pc and 10pc.

The ex-minister said Imran’s “sham austerity measures drama” had further plunged the country into debt while national growth and development had plunged to zero.

“The question is where exactly all this money is going, because millions of people are dropping under the poverty line, businesses are shutting down and unemployment and inflation are skyrocketing. The only logical explanation is that all this wealth is being looted by Imran and his blue-eyed corruption specialists,” she said.

Speaking at a news conference, PPP information secretary and MNA Dr Nafisa Shah said the government had claimed to decrease expenses but it had only increased the loans by 40 per cent.

She regretted that without proper survey, over 800,000 people had been rendered jobless after being removed from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

In order to replace the BISP, she said, the government had introduced Kifalat Card that resembled PTI’s own flag. She said people were being punished for supporting the 18th Amendment while the country’s young population had to suffer through a falling economy that was wobbling every other day.

Accompanied by PPP Senator Rubina Khalid, former MPA Nargis Faiz Malik and party’s media coordinator Nazir Dhoki, Dr Shah said the PTI government was ruining the institutions and had even “compromised the impartiality of the judiciary and military”.

Dr Shah said only the Sindh government while appointing a new police chief was facing strong opposition from the federal government, whereas the Punjab police chief had been changed five times and the inspector general of police in Islamabad had been changed thrice.

Senator Rubina Khalid said the less privileged were being crushed under the falling economy while PM Imran Khan was busy making it worse.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2020